Reading. Reading, reading, reading. You are reading this right now, but are you actually reading? Or just shifting your eyes across a screen to make sense of the characters you see. I began to think that was what reading was, a quick shift of the eyes over the four-inch screen of your phone. This summer, I fell back in love with reading, but like actually reading.

What it took to rediscover the wonders of books was just a trip to Barnes & Noble, and a little bit of an emotional day (disclaimer: I am emotional all the time). I walked my way into Barnes & Noble for the first time in years, it was set up exactly as I remembered it. I was looking for a nice summer read, and ended up reading in the upper level for hours. I completely forgot about how much I love the book "The Five People You Meet In Heaven," I skimmed through it and I could feel my heartstrings being tugged on, I looked at the sequel to the book, which had me choked up in the middle of Barnes & Noble (I feel no shame crying in public because I have done it more than I would like to say, LOL). When I felt myself struggling to keep my tears in I instantly remembered myself at ten years old reading "The Naming of Tishkin Silk" and sobbing, for literally no reason, the book was just so sweet and I am so full of feelings.

Perhaps the reason I haven't read as much is because of the smartphone age, where paper has become a thing of the past. Or, it is because I wanted to not feel so much emotion for such a long part of my life. Reading opens parts of my mind and stimulates my emotions, which I think is beautiful now. I feel like I can be swept off into another world by focusing on a book, and somedays that is all I desire. I know it is cliche, but please, for the love of God, go read a book.